Central European Value Studies

Practicing Philosophy as Experiencing Life: Essays on American Pragmatism is a collection of texts written by top international experts on American philosophy. They consider various strands of American pragmatism from the viewpoint of practical philosophy, and provide the historical background and an outline of the international encounter with other philosophical traditions. Many key figures of American thought and pragmatist philosophy are discussed. The volume combines a panorama of approaches and gives a wide scope of problems: ethical, religious, social, political, cultural, ontological, cognitive, anthropological, and others, so as to show that pragmatism can be seen as a philosophy of life and as such it focuses on the life problems of contemporary humans in particular and of humanity in general.

Contributors are: Jacquelyn Ann K. Kegley, John Lachs, Sami Pihlström , Krzysztof Piotr Skowroński, Kenneth W. Stikkers, and Emil Višňovský

Cognitive existentialism is a version of hermeneutic philosophy. The volume provides a summation of the critical approaches to this version. All essays are engaged in probing the value of universal hermeneutics. Drawing on various conceptions developed in analytical and Continental traditions, the authors explore the interpretative dimensions of scientific inquiry. They try to place the projects of their investigations in historical, socio-cultural, and political contexts. The task of extending hermeneutics to the natural sciences is an initiative of much relevance to the dialogue between the scientific and humanistic culture. A special aspect of this dialogue, addressed by all authors, is the promotion of interpretive reflexivity in both kinds of academic culture.

The topics addressed by Richard J. Bernstein in his extensive and illuminating work span the stream of contemporary thought in several directions: ethics, politics, epistemology, philosophy of history, and social theory. In reflecting on them Bernstein has played an intermediary role between the most recognizable product of American philosophical tradition, i.e. Pragmatism, and such central trends in European 20th century thought as Marxism, Psychoanalysis, Critical Theory, and Hermeneutics.
In this volume a host of prominent scholars from the United States, Europe, and Latin America pays tribute to Bernstein’s lifelong reflection on such present human problems as: the achievements and the dilemmas of modern societies, the legitimation crisis of democracy, the uses and abuses of public space, the role of scientific knowledge and technology in shaping the modern life, the ethical and political interplay between identity and community, and the preconditions and limits of understanding in multicultural contexts.
The fifteen essays in this book, accompanied by separate replies by Bernstein, are organized in four sections: “Bernstein, Rorty and American Pragmatism,” “Epistemology and Hermeneutics,” “Good, Evil and Judgment,” and “Democratic Vistas.” As Prof. Bernstein declares in his Preface, these “contributions are expressions of my own commitment to engaged fallibilistic pluralism.”

In The Ancients and Shakespeare on Time Piotr Nowak depicts a world where tradition – devoid of gravity, “Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything” – attempts to curb the young and new, while youth resists with all its power, vitality and characteristic insolence. The wars of generations, which Nowak explores in the works of Plato, Aristophanes and Shakespeare, pertain to the essence and meaning of time. They make up the dramatic tensions in the transgenerational dialogue between the old and the young.

This book addresses the interrelations between aesthetics, ethics, and politics in the framework of pragmatist aesthetics, offering a comprehensive panorama of the ways and fields in which pragmatist aesthetics ties in with vital social and ethical problems of modernity. Most of the contributors refer to the model propounded by Richard Shusterman. Following in Dewey’s footsteps, Shusterman has elaborated and expanded his concept, adding new dimensions to it. The most important supplement is the idea of aesthetic experience being constituted by our bodiliness. In somaesthetics, pragmatism has acquired a new dimension – a fully developed, comprehensive aesthetic theory. Pragmatist aesthetics with its essential notion of the body engages in critical dialogue with many key concepts of modernity which locate the body in social and cultural frameworks. The articles collected in this volume illustrate the complex range of pragmatist aesthetics and its impact on the understanding of crucial issues in social and moral philosophy.

Martin Jay is one of America's leading intellectual historians. His work spans almost all important questions concerning the subject of modernity. Outstanding Polish scholars engage in a dialogue with Jay’s work, discussing significant problems of modernity and postmodernity. The book offers a broad panorama of contemporary thought approached from various angles. It is also a unique exercise of intercultural intellectual dialogue covering many areas from literature to politics. The book also includes an essay on photography by Martin Jay and his detailed response to the other contributors, which has the character of an extended conversation with them. The book can serve as an assessment of the uptake of Jay’s ideas, and equally well as a general introduction to the genealogy of modernity and postmodernity.

The book presents five philosophical and axiological studies devoted to the relationship between aesthetics and politics. It shows this relationship throughout the works of some avant-gardists, pragmatists, and postmodernists. It is also a voice in the discussion about the meaning of the fine arts and aesthetics in the context of the political aims and norms. This voice claims that the political dimension of art and aesthetics should be studied much more seriously than it has been till today, and needs more courageous re-interpretations and re-readings.

This book is the first essay collection on Richard Shusterman, the foremost representative of contemporary pragmatist aesthetics, a philosopher whose books have been translated into more than fifteen languages. The 12 essays, which cover the wide-ranging scope of Shusterman’s pragmatist thought, divide into three sections: Literary Theory and Philosophy of Art; Epistemology, Metaphysics, Ethics, and Politics; and Somaesthetics. Written by an international group of authors from different philosophical perspectives, the book’s essays not only provide a good introduction to Shusterman’s innovative pragmatist theories, but show their useful applications to important and controversial topics in philosophy, politics, religious and gender studies, the arts, and somaesthetics. The book also includes two new texts by Shusterman: an introductory essay in which he explains the trajectory of his intellectual development and a detailed response to the other contributors, which closes the book.

Alexius Meinong claimed to uncover a brave new world of nonexistent objects. He contended that unreal objects, such as the golden mountain and the round square, genuinely had properties (such as nonexistence itself) and therefore, deserved a place in an all-inclusive science. Meinong’s notion of nonexistents was initially not well-received, largely due to the influence and criticisms of Bertrand Russell. However, it has gained considerable popularity in more recent years as academics have uncovered shortfalls in Russell’s philosophy and strived to explain apparent “facts” about the beingless. Some philosophers have continued Meinong’s project, further explaining nonexistent objects or formulating logic systems that incorporate them.
The more recent developments beg for a re-examination of Meinongianism. This book does just that, putting the theory on trial. Part One considers if Russell truly defeated Meinongianism. It addresses Meinongian rejoinders in response to Russell’s main criticisms and further defends Russell’s alternative solution, his Theory of Descriptions. Part Two explores the rationale for nonexistents and their use in interpreting three types of statements: characterization, negative existential, and intentional. The book argues that, despite appearances, Meinongianism cannot plausibly account for its own paradigm claims, whereas Russell’s framework, with some further elucidation, can explain these statements quite well. Part Three primarily addresses claims about fiction, exploring the short-comings of Meinongian and Russellian frameworks in interpreting them. The book introduces a contextualization solution and symbolic method for capturing the logical form of such claims – one with the complexity to handle cross-contextual statements, including negative existential and intentional ones. It finally considers where that leaves nonexistent objects, ultimately rejecting such so-called entities.

The present volume encapsulates the contemporary scholarship on John Dewey and shows the place of Dewey’s thought on the philosophical arena. The authors are among the leading specialists in the philosophy of John Dewey from universities across the US and in Europe.

This book is the fifth volume of selected papers from the Central European Pragmatist Forum (CEPF). The CEPF was founded in 2000 to provide an opportunity for American and European specialists in American philosophy to share their work with one another and to develop an understanding of the contemporary applications of the American philosophical traditions. The current volume deals with the general questions of identity and social transformation. Papers are organized into sections on the Transformation of Pragmatism, Metatheoretical conditions for Identity Transformation, the Fluidity of Identity, Transforming Self, Transforming Society, Art and Transformation, Richard Rorty on the Transformation of Society and Self, and Pragmatism and Central Europe. The authors are among the leading specialists in American philosophy from universities across the US and in Central and Eastern Europe. In their papers the authors address a range of topics, including comparative analyses of American philosophical figures with prominent representatives of other philosophical traditions, contemporary issues in ethics, aesthetics and social philosophy, unresolved problems in American philosophy, and issues of contemporary policy. All papers deal in one way or another with the general theme of identity and transformation, individual and social.

This book shows how much and in what sense values are related to powers and powers are related to values in American pragmatism. The proposed re-reading of American pragmatism will facilitate a novel understanding of it as a philosophical movement and, by showing its truly humanistic, democratic, and pro-social character, the stronger impetus for current rethinking of values is being provided.

This book is the fourth volume of selected papers from the Central European Pragmatist Forum (CEPF). It deals with the general question of self and society, and the papers are organized into sections on Self and History, Self and Society, Self and Politics, Self and Neopragmatism, and an Interview with Richard Rorty. The authors are among the leading specialists in American philosophy from universities across the US and in Central and Eastern Europe.

This book examines new concept of evolutionary ontology based on the idea of radically different “ontic orders” – natural and cultural being. It explains how culture evolved out of nature and how it became “anti-natural”. The remedy is seen in the global biophilous reconstruction of culture. The value of the “live planet” Earth and the “subject” capable of creative activity and evolution are given fundamental philosophical interpretation.